James Slipper is set to become the third Australian to appear in a fourth men's Rugby World Cup on Sunday against Fiji.
Back then, Slipper had suffered depression for a year while coming to grips with his mother’s terminal cancer. He tested positive for cocaine twice but Rugby Australia took them in context and was lenient with the punishment while giving him specialist mental health help. He didn’t play for the Wallabies in 2017 and 2018 and left the Queensland Reds in 2019 to try and restart his career with the ACT Brumbies.
A foot tendon problem cleared up this week for Slipper to timely replace injured tighthead prop Taniela Tupou. Slipper’s increasingly invaluable ability to prop on both sides has earned him a test start at tighthead for only the third time in 13 years. He’s taking it in stride. “A lot of Super Rugby I played at tighthead, a lot of test rugby I played at loosehead, so I just naturally fell into that mould of being able to play both.
Slipper’s advice to props up-and-coming and established who were curious about playing both sides was just to give it a go. “It’s like anything, really, you’ve got to get on the bike and give it a cycle.”
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